New Employee 3

“Donald, this is now the THIRD time this week you’ve brought the wrong order to me. I ordered a SALAD, not a personal pizza!”

Cass yelled at the fox standing in front of her, who was carrying an order of a personal pan pizza and garlic knots. Donald was one of the company’s runners, who handled orders with the outside world, so the staff could remain focused on work.

At first, Cass was not a fan of this strategy, as she enjoyed going for walks and taking some walking breaks. Once she really got situated though in her job, she realized that this was probably for the best. She needed all the time she was allotted as it was, as she was given many assignments that were on huge time constraints, and going for walks delayed her getting home at a reasonable time. Thus, she had decided to rely on the runners for her breakfast and lunch orders. Which, she thought, would be helpful.

However, it was becoming obvious that these furs were not the brightest of the bunch. She would constantly order egg whites, turkey, and spinach in the morning to go with a coffee (black), but she kept getting an egg sandwich with American cheese, bacon and hot sauce. Tasty, sure, but not exactly the healthiest item to eat. She had made a stink about it the first week, and, while the next day it would result in her getting the right order, by the time the day after that came, it was back to an egg sandwich. After a week of arguing, she gave up, knowing it wasn’t going to get anywhere. And besides, that wasn’t the unhealthiest thing to eat.

When it came to lunch though, it was an entirely different story. Salads were never salads; they were a burger. Or tacos. Or pasta. Or, like today, pizza. And complaining in these instances did nothing. They were never changed, they were never fixed, the items were just left on her desk with an apology. And, while she tried at first to rush to get a salad or some other healthy item, as mentioned before, she had no time to do this and thus, had to stay at her desk. And, as the day dragged on, her stomach would grumble, which would lead to her looking at the lunch item on her desk. And that would only get worse as the day went on.

Eventually, she found herself eating the lunch item, much to the strict diet she was usually on chagrin. Calorie bomb after calorie bomb found its way into the birds abdomen, filling her up and quelling the hunger pains that had kept her focus for hours. Worse, she found that the food was VERY good and somewhat addictive. She found herself feeling a little bad when it was finished, not because she had eaten it, but because there wasn’t anymore. Those thoughts were starting to creep up more and more as the days passed, and while she had fought them off, they were getting harder to ignore.

It’s why the sweater she was wearing clung tightly to a swollen abdomen and larger breasts. Her pants were also snug on her waist and hips, which was why she wasn’t wearing a belt with her slacks. Those same slacks were very baggy when she had started but now, after gaining 21 pounds in just over two months, were attached to her frame, much snugger than before. The bird was somewhat oblivious to this at the moment, thinking it was bloating and her washing machine. If she gained anymore however, it would be very hard for her to think it was anything other than weight gain.

“I’m sorry, Cass. I, um, I can go bring this back and check to see if there is a salad somewhere else in the bags.”

Cass was about to thank him for this, but she got a whiff of what was in the bag. The pepperoni and meatballs were permeating into her cubicle, immediately moistening her beak. Without even thinking, she blurted out:

“I shouldn’t have yelled at you. I’m sorry. You can leave the food here. You rushed over to get it and I don’t want you to go back and possibly get in trouble. Just, just um, don’t let it happen again.”

Donald just shrugged his shoulders and left the bag on the desk and left.

Cass sent an email and then reached over to grab the bag of food. She opened it and took a big whiff of the pizza and groaned before opening the box and grabbing her first slice.

“I can’t keep, chomp, eating this stuff, no matter how good it is. Otherwise, I’m going to look like all the other blimps here”, she said to herself before taking an even bigger bite of the gooey food, not even getting the irony of the situation.